How a Sexy Guy Can Ease PMS

Why "that time of the month" might be different than what you think it is.

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By SHAPE editors

Marrying that Ryan Gosling-lookalike (we wish!) only for his looks may not be a bad idea: A hot hubby may make you happier with your relationship during what’s typically an unhappy time of the month, a new study says.

Researchers are the University of California, Los Angeles looked at how women’s menstruation cycles impacted their feelings about their relationships. During high-fertility days, satisfaction with their partners depended on their guy’s attractiveness.

"Women whose partners are less sexy feel less close to and more critical of their partner on the days immediately preceding ovulation compared to other times in their cycle," says Christina Larson, the study's lead author and a social psychology doctoral candidate at UCLA. "In contrast, women with sexier partners feel closer and more satisfied at that time."

Larson believes this has to do with “investment attractiveness,” or a man’s stability and willingness to help with things like chores and raising children. While guys who chip in around the house make solid partners in the long-term, Larson hypothesizes that women tend to fall back to more cave-woman roots during ovulation.

“Physical attractiveness was a cue to genetic quality in ancestral environments," she says. "On high-fertility days of the cycle when conception could occur, the genetic quality of a woman's partner becomes much more important. That’s the only time of the cycle in which these genes could be passed on to her children."

Larson says that women can take comfort in knowing that their changing feelings for the partner is like cramps and bloating—just another part of being a woman. Just don’t make any impulse choices those days, she adds.

"If your feelings about your relationship have soured, wait a couple of days before making any decisions about your future with your partner," Larson says. "Your feelings might be different after you've ovulated."